ACC ~ John 19 v34
PIERCING AS AN ACT OF MERCY
ORIGEN: Pilate sought to gratify the whole people who had said, “Crucify, crucify him.” He also feared a riot among the people and so did not give orders (according to the usual practice of the Romans with those who are crucified) for Jesus to be stabbed under his armpits. This is sometimes done by those who condemn people guilty of greater crimes, because greater suffering is endured by those who are not stabbed after crucifixion who end up living in very great torment sometimes even the whole night and still the whole day after. Jesus therefore, since he had not been stabbed and was expected to hang a long time on the cross and endure greater torments, prayed to the Father and was heard. Immediately on crying to the Father, he was taken. Or, as one who had the power to lay down his life, he laid it down when he wanted to. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140. [1]
[1] AEG 6:94-95*; GCS 38 2(11):290.
MERCY OR EXPEDIENCY?
ORIGEN: John also makes clear that some such thing took place at the time of Christ’s condemnation and that Pilate did not order the practice to be observed by Christ’s body being stabbed. He writes that they asked Pilate for their legs to be broken and that they then be taken away. But why would it have been necessary to ask for this if it would have been done according to custom? The Jews then pitied after their cruel condemnation those who they thought were still living in fearful torment. They broke the legs of the first and likewise the second. But Jesus had no need of their intercession with Pilate. Therefore coming to Jesus, and since he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Or, perhaps the Jews did not do this out of mercy but primarily because of the sabbath so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, since that sabbath day was a high day. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140. [1]
[1] AEG 6:95*; GCS 38 2(11):291-92.
BLOOD NORMALLY CONGEALS
ORIGEN: Celsus asks whether the blood in the body of the crucified Jesus was the same as that which flows in the bodies of the immortal gods. [1] He asks in jest, but we shall show that it was no mythic or Homeric blood that flowed from the body of Jesus. … With other dead bodies the blood congeals and pure water does not flow. But in the case of Jesus’ dead body, the miraculous feature was that both blood and water flowed forth from his side. AGAINST CELSUS 2.36. [2]
[1] Iliad 5.340.
[2] ANF 4:446**; SC 132:372.
FROM THIS DEAD BODY COMES LIFE
HIPPOLYTUS: The Lord’s body furnished both sacred blood and holy water to the world. … This body, clinically dead, still has a great power of life in it. For what [normally] does not flow from dead bodies flowed from this one, that is, blood and water. This happened so that we might know the great power for life possessed by the power that inhabited this body that, even while dead, was able to pour forth to us the causes of life. FRAGMENT ON THE TWO ROBBERS 1-2. [1]
THE TIDE FROM HIS PIERCED SIDE
AMBROSIAN HYMN WRITER:
At the Lamb’s high feast we sing
Praise to our victorious King,
Who has washed us in the tide
Flowing from his pierced side.
Praise we him whose love divine
Gives the guests his blood for wine,
Gives his body for the feast,
Love the victim, love the priest.
Where the Paschal blood is poured,
Death’s dark angel sheathes his sword;
Israel’s hosts triumphant go
Through the wave that drowns the foe.
Christ, the Lamb whose blood was shed,
Paschal victim, Paschal bread;
With sincerity and love
Eat we manna from above.
Mighty victim from the sky,
Powers of hell beneath you lie;
Death is conquered in the fight;
You have brought us life and light.
Alleluia!
EASTER HYMN, AT THE LAMB’S HIGH FEAST 1-5. [2]
[1] AEG 6:96**; GCS 1 2:211.
[2] HBM 144-45*.
STRIKING CHRIST THE ROCK
ORIGEN: If there is anyone who, when he reads Moses, murmurs against him, and the Law which has been written according to the letter is displeasing to him because it seems incoherent in many things, Moses shows him the rock which is Christ and leads him to it that he may drink from it and quench his thirst. But this rock will not give water unless it has been struck, but when it has been struck it brings forth streams. [1] For after Christ had been struck and crucified, he brought forth the streams of the New Testament. This is why it was said of him, “I will the strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” [2] He had to be struck, therefore, for unless he had been struck and unless “water and blood had gone out from his side,” we all would suffer “thirst for the word of God.” [3] This, therefore, is what the Apostle also understood when he said, “They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock which followed, but the rock was Christ.” [4] HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11.2. [5]
[1] See Jn 7:37.
[2] See Zech 13:7.
[3] See Amos 8:11.
[4] 1 Cor 10:3-4.
[5] FC 71:356-57.
MARTYRS’ BAPTISM AND JESUS’ SIDE
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: The beginning of signs under Moses was blood and water. And the last of all Jesus’ signs was the same. First, Moses changed the river into blood. And Jesus at the last gave forth from his side water with blood. … In the Gospels, the power of saving baptism happens in two ways: one is granted through water to the illuminated, a second is granted to holy martyrs in persecutions through their own blood. Since this is so, blood and water [1] came out of that saving Side to confirm the grace of the confession made for Christ, whether in baptism or martyrdom. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 13.21. [2]
[1] See also Cyril of Jerusalem Catechetical Lecture 3.10. Origen also speaks of this martyr baptism in his Homily on the Book of Judges 7.2 and On the Gospel of Matthew 16.6.
[2] NPNF 2 7:88**. See also Tertullian On Modesty 22; On Baptism 16; Jerome Letter 69.6; Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed 23.
STREAMS OF LIVING WATER
RUFINUS OF AQUILEIA: It is written that when the side of Jesus was pierced, “he poured out blood and water.” This has a mystical meaning. For Jesus himself had said, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” [1] COMMENTARY ON THE APOSTLES’ CREED 23. [2]
[1] Jn 7:38.
[2] NPNF 2 3:552*.
THE CROSS OPENS BAPTISM
JACOB OF SARUG: Christ came and opened up baptism by his cross, so that it should be a mother of life for the world in place of Eve, water and blood for the fashioning of spiritual infants flowed forth from it, and baptism became the mother of life. No previous baptism [i.e., of Moses or of John] ever gave the Holy Spirit. Only the baptism that was opened by the Son of God on the cross did so. It gives birth to children spiritually with the “water and the blood,” and, instead of a soul, the Holy Spirit is breathed into them. HOMILY ON THREE BAPTISMS. [1]
[1] OrChrAn 197:212*.
THE DOOR OF THE ARK IS OPENED
AUGUSTINE: The Evangelist has expressed himself cautiously. He does not say “struck” or “wounded” but “opened his side.” Here was opened the gate of life from which the sacraments of the church flowed without which we cannot enter into that life that is the true life: “And there came out blood and water.” That blood was shed for the remission of sins. That water tempers the cup of salvation. This was prefigured when Noah was commanded to make a door in the side of the ark by which the animals that were not to perish by the deluge entered. These animals prefigured the church. To foreshadow this, the woman was made out of the side of the sleeping man. For this second Adam bowed his head and slept on the cross, so that out of that which came, there might be formed a wife for him. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 120.2. [1]
[1] NPNF 1 7:434-35**.
THE BRIDE FROM ADAM’S RIB AND CHRIST’S SIDE
EPHREM THE SYRIAN: “There came forth blood and water,” which is his church, and it is built on him, just as [in the case of] Adam, whose wife was taken from his side. [1] Adam’s rib is his wife, and the blood of our Lord is his church. From Adam’s rib there was death, but from our Lord’s rib, life. The olive tree [symbolizes] the mystery of Christ, from which spring forth milk, water and oil; milk for the children, water for the youths and oil for the sick. The olive tree gave water and blood through its death, [just as] the Messiah gave these through his death. [2] COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 20.11. [3]
[1] See Gen 2:21-22.
[2] See Mt 3:1-12.
[3] ECTD 323*.
THE BEGINNING OF THE SACRAMENTS
CHRYSOSTOM: Yet the soldiers, in order to gratify the Jews, pierced his side with a spear and now insulted the dead body. O abominable and accursed purpose! Yet, beloved, do not be confused or despondent. What these men did from a wicked will fought on the side of the truth, since there was a prophecy that spoke concerning this very circumstance: “They shall look on him whom they pierced.” [1] And not only this, but this deed would become evidence to confirm the faith of those who should afterward disbelieve, as it was for Thomas and those like him. With this too an ineffable mystery was accomplished. For “there came forth water and blood.” Not without purpose or by chance did those fountains spring forth. Rather, it is because the church consists of these two together. And those who have been initiated know this, being regenerated indeed by water and nourished by the blood and the flesh. And so, the mysteries take their beginning. In this way, when you approach that awesome cup, you may so approach as though you were drinking from his very side. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 85.3. [2]
[1] Zech 12:10.
[2] NPNF 1 14:319**. See also Theodore and Cyril, loc cit.
EUCHARISTIC MIXTURE
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The sacred vine produced the prophetic cluster. This was a sign to them, after they had been trained from wandering to [find] their rest. The sacred vine represented the great cluster of the Word, bruised for us. For the blood of the grape—that is, the Word—desired to be mixed with water, as his blood is mingled with salvation. And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of his flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption. And there is the spiritual blood, that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus is to become a partaker of the Lord’s immortality with the Spirit as the enervating principle of the Word, as blood is of flesh. Accordingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with humankind. And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes the faith; while the other, the Spirit, brings us to immortality. And the mixture of both, of the water and of the Word, is called Eucharist, renowned and glorious grace. And they who by faith partake of it are sanctified both in body and soul. For the Father’s will has mystically compounded the divine mixture, man, by the Spirit and the Word. For in truth, the spirit is joined to the soul, which is inspired by it. And the flesh, by reason of which the Word became flesh, is joined to the Word. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 2.2. [1]
[1] ANF 2:242-43**.
THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE FLOWS
THEODORET OF CYR: When the soldiers pierced the Savior’s side with the lance, what flowed out of it according to the Gospel writers? Blood and water. He called the Savior’s blood, therefore, the blood of a grape. For if the Lord was called a vine, and if the fruit of the vine is called wine, and if springs of blood and water poured from the Lord’s side and ran over the rest of his body to the ground, then the patriarch’s prophecy was reasonable and appropriate: “He will wash his robe in wine and his garment in blood of the grape.” [1] For just as we call the sacramental fruit of the vine the Lord’s blood after the consecration, so he called the blood of the true vine blood of the grape. DIALOGUE 1. [2]
[1] Gen 49:11.
[2] FC 106:46.
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